A CONCEPT LOST WILL NEVER BE REGAINED

Traditionally April 1^st is All Fools Day and judging by what we have heard and seen from the electoral combatants so far perhaps All Fools Month would be a better description for 2015.  One factor that can be  laid before us is the extreme unlikelihood of a certain Chris Grayling being allowed to appear before a television audience to encourage support for the Tories. If he were to do so it would be akin to Rosemary West publicly applying to be a foster mother.  It ain`t going to happen.

I cannot remember a Lord Chancellor/Justice Secretary  who has alienated more groups who operate under his authority. Lawyers of all persuasions including the CPS who of course must remain silent, probation officers, prison officials of all ranks including those charged with inspection, judges, magistrates and of course the very concept of Justice itself.  Even for readers inclined to vote Tory it would be interesting to question your candidate as s/he occupies the doorstep for two minutes as to the legacy of said now former Lord Chancellor. In four short years he has tarnished the concept of British justice. It is hard at this stage to consider how what has been lost will ever be regained.

COMING SOON TO A SITE RIGHT HERE......NEW JUSTICE OF THE PEACE BLOG

Roughly a third of all visitors to this site linger for more than one hour.  I find that very gratifying as I also note that about a half of all visits are by those who are first timers. For those reasons and some more to be explained in due course I will not be posting for perhaps a week or so whilst with my limited techie ability I will,  after about six years,  attempt a re-design of this blog.

LEARN SOMETHING NEW

My very last sitting was on motoring and I learned something new.  Re s.172; most provincial police forces follow up a guilty on that charge with pursuit of the substantive matter which initiated the procedure.  That is excluding the country`s largest police force;  The Metropolitan Police.  Don`t ask me why but the motto is that we learn something new every sitting; even the very last.....ever!

MOBILE PHONE USE WHILST DRIVING, SOME STATISTICS AND SOME ADVICE

 Our lives are ruled by numbers.  Very often those numbers are translated consciously or otherwise as risk.  After that awful air crash in France it is unlikely that there were sufficient cancellations from nervous intending passengers for airlines to consider reducing flights because we assume the risk to us as individuals is miniscule.  And so is the risk relatively speaking of being  prosecuted for using a mobile phone whilst driving.  About 750,000 Fixed Penalty Notices have been issued since the offence was established in 2006. In 2011 there were 171,000 such FPNs issued for the offence.  Prosecutions in Magistrates`Courts for the offence were 35,397 in 2011 with a conviction rate of 91%.  It has been estimated by some that 10% of all driving convictions are for use of mobile whilst driving.  Current figures are hard to obtain.  Perhaps that is because of the reduced number of tickets being issued owing to the greatly reduced number of police patrol cars on the roads of this country and that is a direct result of the coalition`s policy of worshipping at the temple of the NHS while policing, courts and defence of the realm are starved of funds. 

Nevertheless those who refuse a FPN and/or plead not guilty by post are entitled for the process of summary trial to determine their guilt or innocence.  Every court in the land spends a good deal of its time on motoring matters which is why Grayling is so determined to fast track on - line facilities to “simplify” such “simple” cases.  As per past experience there are always one or two defendants per sitting who have pleaded not guilty by post to use of a mobile phone whilst driving and/or  make no further contact with the court and yet who fail to attend for trial.  What complete and utter fools these people are. Unless procedural failings are found or police perjury is suspected conviction in absence is virtually certain. A typical case earlier this week was J who was found guilty in his absence; fined £200 with costs of £640 and a surcharge of £20.  So my advice to those caught using a mobile whilst driving is to pay the FPN of £100 and accept the 3 penalty points with grace.  And if there is a hope that their case is to be one of the 9% found not guilty at trial that can only happen if they turn up for their trial with the limited defences available.

MUSINGS ON TUESDAY

At last a change in police procedure which will be to the benefit of the innocent until proved guilty suspect insofar as police bail is to be restricted to a maximum of 28 days.  An extension to three months can be authorised by a senior [currently of unknown rank] police officer.  Beyond that the police will be required to argue their case in front of magistrates in open court.  It will prove interesting to discover what the threshold will be for a bench or DJ to approve an extension and if so for what period.

During a period in which we were told that every new law would be accompanied by the repeal of those now outdated the Justice Ministry has excelled even its own well rehearsed reputation for the spewing out of new “this” and reformed “that” by this announcement of new legislation much of which is completely unnecessary.

Whilst the digitalisation of  pleas to minor  motoring offences eg no insurance (sic)  is not the primary reason this initiative will certainly be another nail in the coffin for magistrates` current responsibilities in a court environment.

A recent survey on the attitudes of judges provides some insight into the inner opinions of a hitherto closed group of high level civil servants.  The very high response rate makes the outcomes very interesting reading.